Elite Dangerous: Horizons

Among the many player-run organizations in sandbox space sim/MMO-lite Elite: Dangerous, few have the glowing reputation of the Fuel Rats: A philanthropic alliance dedicated to rescuing stranded players that have carelessly used up the last of their hyperdrive fuel out on the far fringes of charted space. Yesterday, it was the Rats' turn to be rescued, after one of their fueling bases of choice nearly…

Elite Dangerous is now four years old somehow, or five if you count the various betas. In that time, it's gone from impossible promise (ah, those halcyon 2012 Kickstarter days) to absolute bedrock of modern PC gaming, what with its blend of solo noodling about, lethal PVP sandbox and slow-burn, community-driven storytelling. Whether it's quite what we expected a new Elite game to be half…

Things have been hotting up in Elite Dangerous’ [official site] facsimile of our massive galaxy, what with that whole alien invasion problem. But if humanity can survive the Thargoids, there’s a whole lot more coming in 2018 with a new season called Elite Dangerous: Beyond. Frontier announced a roadmap at Frontier Expo, and it looks like they’re going to be cramming a lot into these…

The pilots of Elite Dangerous: Horizons [official site] have become space sleuths in the past year, attempting to uncover more information about the mysterious aliens known as the Thargoids. Their latest discovery is the most momentous yet: a sprawling base on a world hundreds of lightyears from Earth. You can watch the first humans explore its cavernous interior below.

After yonks of warning signs, hints, puzzles, and tense first encounters in Elite Dangerous: Horizons [official site], the alien Thargoids are almost ready to start preparing to properly arrive in a bit. Frontier Developments have announced that the space 'em up's Update 2.4, codenamed The Return, will kick off story events that will finally see Thargoids return to Elite as a proper part of the…

Space trucking sim Elite Dangerous [official site] recently held one of its public events for players. This time a special NPC would be racing back to the “bubble” (the populated core worlds of the galactic frisbee) from a mysterious place known as the Formidine Rift. Her name was Salomé and she had “vital information.” I am using the past tense to describe her because -…

A bunch of maps and tools for space sim Elite: Dangerous [official site] were shut down today by their creators as part of a protest over what they called a “lack of consistency from Frontier in effectively fostering third-party development”. The picket line of third-party tools was set to last until Sunday and included some very useful stuff for pilots like maps, trading databases and…

Elitists can now fly ships with their chums and create their own spaceface, thanks to the big Elite Dangerous: Horizons [official site] update today launched. The headline feature of Horizons version 2.3, nicknamed 'The Commanders', is multicrew spaceshipping, letting several players take stations on the bridge. The auxiliary roles don't sound super exciting in themselves as Elite wasn't built with them in mind but hanging…

Elite Dangerous [official site] has excellent hands. See how the fingers twitch, watch how they waggle a flightstick - just hanging around in a cockpit is oddly mesmerising. And by God I'm worried about how much inadvertent innuendo crept into those last couple of lines. Anyway: Frontier's spaceship demi-MMO is gearing up to progress far beyond hands and into bodies and faces. They've just shown…

Thargoid alien spacemen have arrived in Elite Dangerous [official site], following a string of hints and discoveries, and they look pretty flipping cool. Players can now encounter a whopping great Thargoid ship in a scripted sequence with all the mystery and threat I'd want from first contact (well, in this game) with an alien civilisation who consider me so far beneath them. Here, come watch…

Elite Dangerous [official site] got its latest update today, bringing more galactic hi-jinks to the quite-good space sim. Murmurs of aliens and fighter bays have so far blinded us to the real highlight of the update – the space buses. The Beluga is a giant luxury space yacht for transporting wealthy VIPs on passenger missions and it is the focus of a new trailer Frontier…

[Update: This issue is perhaps less imminent that I'd thought - Frontier dropped us a line to stress that it may be a fair bit longer than six months, though Braben did say "the change will need to come at some point" so it seems this will happen eventually.] Like in real life, obsolescence in PC gaming is usually a slow process. An achy knee…

"f you don’t want to play Sol Trader, I’m afraid we can’t be friends any more," wrote Adam last year. Now it's your chance to make or break a friendship with our most devout strategy enthusiast, as "Elite, Asteroids & Dwarf Fortress" fusion Sol Trader is finally due for release, just a few days from now.

The second Elite: Dangerous [official site] expansion, from its 'Horizons' series of add-ons, will blast off on May 26th. 'The Engineers' will bring... engineers? Obviously. Little embarrassed I had to tell you that, honestly. They, in turn, bring even more ways to customise your ships and weapons - if they like you. Also, launching alongside The Engineers but not requiring anyone to buy the expansions…

What will happen when humanity first meets alien life in the depths of space? We'll murder it and see if anything valuable plops out its corpse, of course. Following a trail of cryptic hints, Elite: Dangerous players have encountered alien life for the first time on a few planets. And shot it. Luckily, the giant barnacle-looking lumps seem inert, and have not respond with hails…

Ah, that special day in any game with a colon in its name's life - when it releases its first expansion, and with it its first dash. Welcome, Frontier, to the hallowed ranks of the :- club. Now you too will be a nightmare for proof-readers and CMS tag databases the world over. But wait just one gosh-darn cotton-pickin' minute: something strange has happened. Elite:…

I always feel I'm making a mistake writing about Elite Dangerous: Horizons [official site]. I get that the expansion is actually a series of mini-expansions, and that the first will add planets to roam around on. It's when I reach the point in the post to explain that Horizons is being sold not as an expansion or season pass but only as a new base…

Beta access opened tonight for the first phase of the planet-roaming Elite: Dangerous [official site] expansion Horizons, which I believe is for folks who pre-ordered. "Aha! But Alice," you say, in a snide tone of voice that you know makes people want to twat you in the nose but makes you feel so clever, "I thought you said never to pre-order? I distinctly recall you…

The Elite Dangerous: Horizons expansion will introduce the ability to land on planets to the mining-trading-pirating cockpit sim. It has no fixed release date, but you'll be able to test it out later this month: a beta was announced last night during a livestreamed Q&A with David Braben and will begin on November 24th.